The Destroyer (41 page)

Her companion turned as I notched my last arrow. This Elven dove off of the ledge with the speed of a diving eagle. The bolt embedded itself in the stone roof where she had been a split second earlier. Light footsteps scraped the roof next to me and I spun my bow around my head to block the sword blow I knew was about to slice me apart.

The bow I had been using was finely crafted, with metal in its shape to give it an extreme amount of strength, even for its half-size. The sword bit into it halfway but didn't snap it in two. My Elven attacker looked surprised that I had blocked his swing. He quickly flipped around the handle of the sword in both his hands, making a quick cut with the blade's tip at my chin.

I dropped the bow and threw myself back, dodging the blade by an inch. I also avoided another barbed arrow that had been aiming for the space my shoulders occupied a fraction of a second before. The missile came from my right and I turned in mid-fall to see the male I had evaded in the street. He perched on a higher roof and already had another arrow ready to shoot down at me. I pushed my arms behind me and made my body flip into a handspring.

Another arrow flew by my face as I dove behind a chimney. The Elven with the sword moved up to strike me and I had to jump out from behind my chimney cover to avoid being cut. The sword banged against the stone of the chimney and another arrow slammed into the back side of it as I stepped in close to the Elven and wrapped my hands around the hilt and his grip. This bastard may have not been the world's best swordsman, but he was resourceful. As soon as he felt my grip around his sword hilt he reached down with his off hand and pulled a curved dagger out of the sheath on his waist.

I kept my right hand locked around his on the sword and moved my left down to attempt to parry the dagger. He should have tried to cut off the hand that went for his dagger, but instead he cut for my stomach, it was a rookie mistake and I easily sucked myself out of the way. Then I pushed his left hand into the stonework of the chimney, rendering the dagger useless. My hands gripped and pulled him toward me. Instinctively he tried to resist and pull back. I expected it and released the grip on my right hand and slid it down his right sword arm and slammed into the crook of his neck. At the same time, my right foot stepped down in between his legs.

The force of the blow wasn't hard enough to break his neck or his windpipe, but it crushed his throat and he tumbled back off balance. His short sword was then in my hands and I left the cover of the chimney briefly to slam its curved blade through his heart.

The Elven on the roof above me had been flanking me to my right, so my move to finish off his friend put me in a position of better cover. I jumped down from the roof and ran south again, with hopes that I could head west on the street where we exchanged arrows earlier and then make it to the wall.

The street looked clear, but I moved to the far side of it, away from where I last saw the Elvens, in case I needed to duck behind cover. The wall loomed up ahead of me like a small mountain. I could see the stairs leading up about two hundred yards away. I would be there within seconds.

"Stop. I challenge you O'Baarni!" a female voice said as soon as I reached the stairs heading up into the nook of the wall. I turned to the woman that had dodged my arrow from the rooftop a minute earlier. She had a curved sword drawn and was sprinting before me. She slid to a halt when she saw that I had stopped on the stairs. I didn't see the male who had shot at me anywhere.

"What does that mean?" I said as I slowly backed up the stairs to the wall. Both sides of the pathway on the top were spaced with thick stone pillars and I could take cover from the archer there.

"You fight me alone. No tricks," she said. "I want to know your skill." Her eyes glowed like sapphires from the light of the moon. Her hair was tied in two matching ponytails on the side of her head. I couldn't tell what the color of her mane was, but it was reflective, either gold or silver.

"Six of your detestable kind are dead by my hand and you want to try your luck?" I moved the rest of the way up the stairs and looked down at her.

"Yes." She nodded and smiled.

"Where is your friend? He will interfere."

"No. He went back to report to our Commander." She looked around.

"Why don't you follow him?" I raised an eyebrow.

"She does not accept failure. I would rather die here fighting you than face her." She began to ascend the stairs.

"But your companion doesn't feel the same way?"

"Perhaps she will forgive him for reporting what you are capable of, but I'll take my chances here." She smiled. Her exotically beautiful face filled my mouth with bile. I was about to reply when my ears picked up another sound in the otherwise silent night: many horses racing through the city toward the west exit.

"Sword against sword O'Baarni. No magic, just our bodies entwined in combat." I looked back down the stairs at her and she slid her long tongue across red lips. The woman wore black leather armor and I saw a white insignia on her left breast piece. It looked like the stylized design of a flame and I recalled that the others I had killed all bore a similar icon on their armor.

"No tricks?" I asked. She nodded and I smiled back at her.

I felt the Air slide around me and I summoned the Earth to my chest. Before the woman could react I threw the power out from my body. It was flame, force, hate, passion, and death. Her face changed from lust to horror as she exploded into fire. Her scream filled the silent air and seemed to shake the stones of the wall. No tricks.

Deep satisfaction came from watching her body burn.

It was impossible to walk across the battlefield without stepping on bodies.

"What are you looking for?" Alexia asked as she flipped back her short blonde hair. Her dark green armor had snakes scrawled and etched over every surface.

"A particular one. I was just curious. Carry on with the search and destroy." Alexia nodded and flashed me a grin before she leapt away.

I glanced back to the bodies, expecting to suddenly see a long trail of hair that looked like fire. I knew that she wasn't dead. I could still feel her heart beating in the Earth and hear her laughter on the wind.

I staggered against the wall with dizziness from the memory and the use of Air. She may have been lying about her companion, so I kept to the inside of the wall and continued to check the rooftops while I ran. The sounds of the hooves seemed to be getting closer. I reached the west gate a few seconds after the horses passed through. There were six of them. Larger steeds that bore the markings of the king's mounts. I recognized the posture and riding style of three Elvens that sat atop them. They were wearing dark leather armor similar to the ones I had just killed. Sharing the saddle of the Elven in the middle of the group was a woman in a thin white dress.

Jessmei.

She appeared to be tied at the hands and feet. The princess gave one last look at the castle and city before the riders crested a hill five hundred yards out. Had this all been a feint to capture the King's daughter?

Fuck. I had made too many mistakes tonight. I had almost gotten myself killed and allowed Jessmei to be captured.

I looked back toward the castle. Then I sighed when I speculated on the complicated process of getting a rescue effort underway. I would need to speak with the royal family to get rations, a horse, and permission. Maerc and Runir would probably try to thwart my attempt and then send their own men. There was no time for their bullshit; the trail would be cold in a few hours. I thought about her beautifully kind face crying out in horror. I thought of the tortures they would inflict upon her once they reached the empress’s camp.

I sighed. Then I jumped from the wall and fell into the soft grass sixty feet below. My bare feet left deep imprints in the ground where I landed but I doubted any guards would notice. I didn't even have shoes, but I would have to make it work. Jessmei needed me now and no one else could help her.

I set off at a run after the horses. I would catch them and bring her back. I never failed. Or at least, I hadn't remembered failing yet.

Perhaps I shouldn't have taken much comfort from the holes in my memory.

"We found seven bodies of Ancients," Runir reported to the duke and king. It was the morning after Jessmei's kidnapping. No one had slept, and a tight melancholy tension hung in the air. "I," the blonde man paused. "I believe we discovered the body of Kaiyer, it was hard to identify though."

"No!" I blurted out before my mind made sense of is words. Everyone turned to look at me with pity in their eyes. "He's not dead. Why do you think so? What do you mean, 'It was hard to identify?'" My voice squeaked out at the end past the tightness in my stomach. I glanced at Nadea and she slumped down in her chair. There sat a plate of breakfast food on the table but she hadn't even touched it.

Runir walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. I felt myself sob and I tried to hold it in so they wouldn't hear.

"I am sorry to tell you this news." He squeezed my shoulder to comfort me. "I know he was your friend, but he died protecting us and Nia. It's all that we Knights can ask for, a death serving Nia."

"Where did you find the bodies?" The king gestured to a small model of the castle and city. Runir walked over and placed small red tokens on the model. After a few minutes of careful consideration, he stepped back.

"We found them here. Kaiyer's was over there." He pointed to a marker by the edge of the west wall. "It was burned to ashes, cremated beyond recognition."

"So you don't know for sure it is his body?" the duke said in a haggard voice.

"No, we don't know for sure. This one's face was smashed into the stonework, his weapons were taken, which is why I think Kaiyer killed him first." Runir then pointed at the marker next to one closest to the castle. "This one had a dagger embedded in her throat."

"How about the others?" Maerc asked with interest.

"He moved through the city toward the west wall killing them." He gestured to the various markers on the map. "In the end he was exposed in the open and one used their magic to incinerate him. Then they escaped over the wall and met up with the three that kidnapped Jessmei. That is why they took extra horses with them."

Before the young man could say more, a knock sounded at the door and Greykin walked in. His pants were coated with dirt and mud. No one seemed to care that he tracked it into the Planning Room.

"I found the spot where someone jumped off the wall. Looks like they ran to the road, but the idiot guards made a mess of the scene with their boots. The trail led west and then we lost it going north." The big man stroked his whiskers with his left hand. His right strayed down to tightly grasp the handle of his axe.

"What if he isn't dead? What if the ashes were someone else's?" I asked again. I knew what they thought. I saw the pity and condescension as they looked away from me. But it was not just naïve hope that kept me believing he was alive. There was no real evidence he was dead. The ashes could be those of an Ancient. Why were they so quick to give up on Kaiyer, to give up hope? Grandfather's hands lay on my shoulders where Runir's had been. I looked back and saw that his blue eyes were misty.

"Sorry Paug. If he is alive then why isn't he here?" Runir sat down in one of the free chairs and sighed in exhaustion.

I didn't have an answer. The tears just slid down my cheeks like warm rain. I didn't want to cry in front of them, but I couldn't seem to stop the tears from their trek. I looked down at the ground so they wouldn't see my sadness and Grandfather wrapped his arms around me from behind.

"It's okay Paug," he whispered to me. The tears started to fall faster and my lips quivered beyond my control. I looked up through my lashes at Nadea across the room. She had propped her elbows onto the thick dark wood of the table and covered her face with her hands. I couldn't see if she shared my tears, but I imagined that she did. I hoped that she had cared about him as much as I did.

He'd been the only one that had seemed to want to listen to me talk about my stupid life, unlike the other adults, he didn’t consider me a boy, he viewed me as an equal. His gentle smile flashed through my brain when I recalled how he had asked me to join him whenever we went somewhere in the castle. I remembered the banquet, when he had tried to convince me to talk to Tanya Gettil. I wished I would have followed his advice. He would have been proud of my bravery, even if I had only gotten a cold shoulder from the beautiful singer. And he was right. If I had done it, maybe she would have been nice, and I could say I had spoken to the famous woman. If she had ignored me, I would have been no worse off than I was now. I vowed to choose bravery from now on, to honor his memory by behaving like him.

He was going to save us from the Ancients. How would we prevail without him?

"It pains me beyond measure to make these decisions," the king said. He stood up and paced around the room. It was large enough for all of us, including the prince and three of the king's generals. "We must focus on defending the capital against Losher. I will have to hope that they wanted my daughter alive for some sort of political leverage. I'll have to pay that price at a later date. But I cannot pay it without a kingdom. How soon can we recall our troops from the North?"